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Navalny himself saw the funny side and posted several of the parodies on his blog, with one showing him next to Putin under the caption that he was also backing him financially.

The blogger, a lawyer who has frequently
exposed state corruption on his website, said the smear was 'primitive'
and showed Putin 'just did not understand the internet'.

Making a mockery: Internet users quickly took to Photoshop to come up with a series of fun-making photos of Navalny alongside improbable companions - this one being Harry Potter's arch-nemesis Voldemort

Back at you! Navalny posted a selection of the mocking images on his blog, including this one of him with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

His comments will resonate even further with the Kremlin, which is trying to contain the web-savvy activisits using social media to circumvent censorship on state-controlled media.

It has led to the biggest wave of street protests since the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago.

Navalny was jailed for 15 days last month after being arrested at a protest against widespread ballot-rigging in parliamentary elections won by Putin's United Russia party, which he dubbed 'the party of crooks and thieves'.

Back in time: Navalny 'pictured' with former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin

I'll be back: Navalny seems to have expanded his group of celebrity friends in the pictures, here 'posing' with actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

He then became a target for 'dirty tricks'. He spoke, on his release from prison, to 100,000 people who rallied in Moscow on Christmas Eve to demand fresh elections.

The protests are due to resume next month in what has been called the 'Snow Revolution'.

The photograph, which was subsequently doctored, showed Navalny alongside another oligarch, the metals billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who is also running for president against Mr Putin.

Aleksey Yushenkov, a photographer who took the shot in May at the studios of the independent Ekho Moskvy radio station, posted his picture online as well as ones taken just before and after to prove that the newspaper version was fake.

Phone home: Navalny has also popped up alongside some characters from out of this world, including this alien